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This American Life sometimes makes you cry in the car…but in a good wayhttps://toasttt.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/this-american-life-sometimes-makes-you-cry-in-the-car-but-in-a-good-way/
https://toasttt.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/this-american-life-sometimes-makes-you-cry-in-the-car-but-in-a-good-way/#respondWed, 11 Jun 2014 17:11:57 +0000http://toasttt.wordpress.com/?p=16]]>

I’m shocked by the amount of people I have mentioned this program to who have never heard of it. Sometimes if someone says they’ve never heard it and don’t seem interested in it at all I think “We can never truly be friends.” I know it’s awful, but it’s totally true. I have loved talk radio since I discovered it way back when I was an idealistic young college freshman, but let me clarify something – I pretty much HATE all the shows where people can call in and ask questions. I loathe them as I loathe sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor. I’m not tuning in to hear some rando’s opinions or thoughts on anything (particularly because they’re normally not well-spoken or organized). I only want to hear the talent. Again, I know this is not necessarily a good thing to think but no one has good thoughts all the time. Just ask Louis CK.

So I’m going to pretend that all 5 of you reading this ARE interested in This American Life because it’s hard for me to fathom a person with a beating human heart and even a shred of emotional depth not being into it. TAL is broadcast every week by Public Radio International and each show has a central theme but is then made up of a variety of stories on that theme. There are numerous contributors but the leading man is Ira Glass. Oh, Ira. I’m just gonna go ahead and say that I never imagined I would have a crush on someone named Ira. It’s kind of an old man playing chess at the park kind of name isn’t it? Reminds me of this…

Anyway, since I’ve been spending tons of time in my car for my job I’ve had to find ways to pass the time other than traditional radio. There’s only so many times I can hear Katy Perry or The Lumineers or even Our Lady Beyonce before I want to kill everyone. And since I work in sales, being murderous would probably be detrimental to my commission. The podcasts app on my trusty ol’ iPod has been a godsend and This American Life is my special treat every week. Here’s a list of some of the ones that have really moved me:

The House on Loon Lake – this one is special because the whole hour is devoted to this one story and it’s so worth it. It’s about an abandoned house that an 11 year old boy and his friends discover one summer and their decades-long search to find out what happened to the people who lived there. It really brought into stark relief all the things that can be lost when people stop caring about one another on even a base level. Reminded me of the book (and movie) Warm Bodies where people become zombies solely because of self-imposed isolation from the world around them.

Valentine’s Day – this struck a cord with me for a number of reasons, but Act I is the real star. This Valentine’s Day was a new experience for me since it was my first one as a single person in over a decade. And I spent a lot of it in grocery stores surrounded by pink hearts and shitty candy watching people just eat it up with a very detached perspective on the whole thing.

Harper High School – if you only click on one of these links, make it this one. It’s a long-term investigative report on the school in Chicago with the most students killed by gun violence in a single year. I remember listening to this while I was folding laundry and just laying down on my bed and letting the tears run into my ears because it is so sad and so honest. Whatever awards they give to radio programs – this one should win them all.

I could keep going but if these three don’t pique your interest, I don’t know what will. I have gotten so much enjoyment and knowledge from these voices and stories, I can’t even quantify it. Turn off the top 40 and try it – you won’t be sorry.

I remember the day Kurt Vonnegut died pretty clearly. I was a senior in college and an English major and the sadness in the department was pretty palpable. My focus in school was mostly on English literature of the Victorian period and in my non-scholarly reading I had somehow missed most of his work, so quite honestly I didn’t feel very affected. I remember several students crying and wearing black armbands even but I was struggling to feel the loss. Fast-forward to present day times and I finally feel like I get it now. He was pretty remarkable. I just finished reading Galapagos and I’m definitely going to be seeking out more of him to read in the future. I think I especially enjoyed this one because it’s got a pretty bleak outlook on humanity in general and that’s kind of where I’m at in terms of my worldview. Bitter and jaded, party of one, your table is ready.

For a little counterbalance I decided to re-read Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I read this way back in high school when it first came out in my Reading for Fun class (yes, we had a class called Reading for Fun. It was awesome. Be jealous) and I remember really enjoying it but I’m not quite certain I grasped everything it was about with my young little 16-year-old brain. Plus I watched the movie over Christmas and it made me curious about it again. If you haven’t seen it, it’s truly beautiful and I’d definitely recommend it.

And now, the main event. Over the last month or so, I have developed a serious crush on Anthony Bourdain. It all started with a copy of Kitchen Confidential that I found at Half-Price Books which made me remember the few episodes of No Reservations I happened to catch on the Discovery Channel when I was misbehaving and not watching sports or news while tending bar last summer at Karly’s. Sorry, not sorry Uncle Tim. Then I downloaded Medium Raw on Audible and listened to it while I ran my route for work. Then I found Parts Unknown (his newer CNN show) on Netflix. Then using some Amazon cards my dad gave me, I bought A Cook’s Tour and The Nasty Bits and got those in the mail the other day.

So…..yeah, I’m a little infatuated. And while I do think he’s pretty handsome (check this out – hachacha!), I mostly just dig the way he writes. It’s SUPER sexy. Call me a weirdo if you like (definitely wouldn’t be the first time) but I’ll take this silver fox over Anderson Cooper any day. He’s got a couple of mysteries too that I’ll probably check out some time over the summer. The love affair continues.

To keep the mood happy since I started out this one on a little bit of a maudlin note, today’s song is really cute and contains whistling, which I always love.

The trip home to MN last weekend was fruitful in many ways – I got to see a lot of people I really care about and spend good quality time with them, I came up with the bright idea for this blog, and I got my dad’s old Sony flatscreen and Apple TV! All in all, a pretty great trip. If you’ve never heard of it, Apple TV is pretty much the coolest thing ever. It’s this tiny little box that you plug into your TV and then you can watch Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, and a bunch of other stuff on your TV, which frees your computer up for doing things like fake shopping on Etsy and endlessly scrolling Pinterest WHILE you watch the 30 Rock “Sandwich Day” episode for the 12th time. It’s amazing!

Since I got this superfun new toy, I’ve been putting it to good use by watching all three seasons of Girls on HBO Go. I’ve seen them before but they definitely merit a second watch. I’m just going to say this once and for all – I really admire Lena Dunham. I think she is a really talented and honest writer who isn’t afraid to create realistic and flawed characters. One of my favorite scenes in the whole series is the very first one in the pilot where her parents tell Hannah (Lena’s character) that they’re not going to support her financially anymore. Her complete shock and sense of entitlement is so hilarious and sad and it really sounds like something a spoiled only child would totally say.

I feel like Lena gets a lot of unfair criticism, but then again what talented artist doesn’t? Her responses to the criticisms are one of the things I really like about her as well. Here’s an interview she did with Grantland and while I know it’s long, I definitely think it’s worth watching. I just think that she is so well-spoken and smart and really interesting to listen to. Skip to 26:24 if you want to only hear her talk about the Girls backlash.

Having just watched all three seasons (although I watched them out of order – 2,3, then 1 for some reason) I can really appreciate the growth of the characters – especially Adam and Hannah. I think it’s safe to say that most people who have watched the show really don’t like Adam in the beginning, but almost everyone I know has grown to really love him by the end of season three. On the surface he seems like a sociopathic weirdo but the more we got to know of his character, it becomes obvious that he has very deep thoughts and emotions and those glimpses into his more vulnerable aspects are so worth waiting for. My feelings about Hannah fluctuate from episode to episode – normally I’m really rooting for her to succeed even though she can be such a narcissistic brat but sometimes the things she’s capable of doing still really surprise me. Like even though she and Adam are in this committed and kind of healthy relationship, she still lies to him in a big way at the end of “Dead Inside” and still pretty much manages to make everything (even the funeral of her editor) about her.

(SPOILER ALERT)

The season finale ended with Hannah getting into a very prestigious writing program and her boyfriend Adam debuting on Broadway in a revival of Shaw’s Major Barbara. Right before the opening night curtain, Hannah tells Adam about getting into this program, which will take her out of NYC for awhile. In her brain, she was sharing good news with her boyfriend and she thought he would just be happy for her and would see things just the way she saw them. She has this fantasy of them being a perfect “creative couple” and expects Adam to be totally on board with the idea, not taking into account his feelings about her going away or how that will affect his performance. So obviously after the play they have a fight about why she chose to tell him at that time and she truly doesn’t understand what she did wrong. Truthfully, when I first watched it I thought he was being kind of a dick and it took a conversation with one of my best friends where she explained exactly how selfish Hannah was being to try to make even a part of that night about her for me to really get it. Even though she was in the wrong, I love the fact that the last scene of the episode was Hannah clutching her acceptance letter and smiling. I like that even though her relationship might suffer, she’s not willing to give up on this chance. Conflicting emotions abound about her but that’s what makes her so interesting to watch.

So yeah, I think you should definitely watch this show. Like now. And if you’ve already watched it, I think a second viewing isn’t a bad idea at all. I picked up on a lot of things the second time around that I either didn’t notice on the first watch or didn’t give enough significance to in terms of the story. And thanks to Spotify (which I now feel I couldn’t live without) I’m going to share a cool new song to check out at the end of each post. Today it’s Shadow by Bleachers

The lead singer Jack Antonoff is actually Lena Dunham’s boyfriend so I’d say it’s the perfect song choice today. Enjoy!

]]>https://toasttt.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/girls/feed/0alwaysaddmorebutterOHHyrGirls-TV-Series-HBO-2560X1600-Wide-WallpaperInception (of this idea, not the movie)https://toasttt.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/inception-of-this-idea-not-the-movie/
https://toasttt.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/inception-of-this-idea-not-the-movie/#commentsWed, 28 May 2014 03:15:23 +0000http://toasttt.wordpress.com/?p=11]]>

I know this is totally reprehensible but this whole idea came about after a wine-fueled trip down memory lane via a stack of old yearbooks with one of my best friends. Alcohol + reminiscing alone is usually a bad combination, but when done with someone you’ve known since you were four, that knows pretty much everything about you, it is shockingly fun. Ten years out of high school really gives you a new perspective on that “awesome quote” you chose to put under your senior picture or those “super-stylish overalls” you wore for your 7th grade photo. Fun times.

I don’t know how common it is, but in our yearbook there’s a section called “In 20 Years” for the seniors, where you write what you think you’ll be doing twenty years out of high school. Whoever came up with this idea wins a gold star in emotional torture for suresies. Everyone thinks they’re going to marry their high school love and have a few kids, have a dream job, a beautiful home, etc etc. Thankfully, I didn’t write anything like that. I made some joke about my high school waitressing job being crappy (a thoughtless quip which got me banned from there for life) and said something about writing movie reviews and getting paid to eat popcorn and candy on the daily. All in all, not that embarrassing. This will surprise no one who knows me, but I’ve never been sad about not being able to patronize that restaurant. I have been sad about not writing very much in these last few months though. Once I got into the swing of things with my old blog, I truly loved it. The whole process of baking, cooking, photography, writing, figuring out the mechanics of WordPress and how to make things look the way I wanted them – it was all very fulfilling creatively. But then things in my actual life took a real turn that made my internet life come to an abrupt halt. I’ve done a few posts in the last few months but I just can’t get that voice back. Things are too different. I’m too different. Deep down I knew I needed something new but it was really hard to let go of the old. I’m ready now though. On the long drive back from home, this little baby was borned.

This blog will be different in that I’m mostly going to write about everything I’m reading, watching, or listening to. I’m going to write about all the different stories I’m hearing every day. I realized sometime in the last year that being told a story, in whatever form, is really my favorite thing. Above cooking, above baking, and yes, even above toast. Stories are what drive me in this life. And when I find a good one, I want to share it. I want to make sure that as many people know about it as possible because everything that happened in the last year made me realize how much I was missing out on willfully by not branching out from my comfort zone. So we’re going to do it all – books, movies, TV, music, radio, fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Cliche as it may be, it’s totally true – Go big or go home.